Woes of a data-starved gamer

Finally, I have a new gaming laptop, one from the Asus Republic of Gamers series (Dell’s Alienware was what I really wanted, but the bank balance had the last word). In the one month that this monster has come into my life, you’d imagine that I’ve been immersed in games. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.

Ever since I discovered my love for gaming—which was about a decade and a half ago—I’ve coveted a gaming computer. In the beginning, such a magical device was priced way out of my wherewithal. Later on, the priorities of work life kicked in and mobility became much more important. When I finally discovered that I could have a work computer and a gaming computer, I found myself with one foot in almost-middle-age. Nevertheless, if there’s one thing advancing years help you realize, it’s that if you don’t do the things you want to now, you’ll soon find yourself occupied with trying to remember where you left your glasses and teeth.

Thus, my gaming laptop entered my life and the first thing I did, after setting it up and removing the crapware, was install Thief to get on with my unfinished game, in high settings this time. Meanwhile, one of my friends pulled off a terrific mind-reading feat and sent across a game I’d been eyeing for a while, Wolfenstein: New Order, but would definitely have been wishful thinking for my four-year-old Mac (running Bootcamp). Plus, in the past few months, I’ve been thinking of wiping out my gaming backlog, which includes games from the Mass Effect, Dragon Age and BioShock series, plus stuff like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Portal 2, which I’m very close to finishing. Oh, and I do have an eye on Sims 4.

However, because gaming aquisition has gone almost exclusively cloud-based, I was suddenly faced with massive amounts of downloads. Wolfenstein: New Order is a 40 GB download; Deus Ex: HR needs a 7 GB update (!) after installation, as will most other games. Which brings me up against the almost crippling data limits at our disposal. My (unlimited) internet connection has a fair-use limit of 50 GB after which it drops to 1 Mbps. That, admittedly, isn’t all that awful, but it still encourages the wrath of other people who share your home! Of course, the third world isn’t the priority of the gaming industry, which is annoying and not difficult to see why rampant piracy exists. (Another reason for this is, of course, the existence of silly DRM policies, about which I’ve ranted here.) I have been tempted to go down the bootleg route, but haven’t so far even though it’s hard to ignore its convenience.

However, in the interests of keeping things legal, here’s hoping that Wolfenstein will be ready to play by the time I return from my travels, in early March. After that, it might be time to get Sims 4 and set it to download for the next couple of months. But meanwhile, Thief draws to a close and I shall have to admit, it has been super playing with all the settings cranked up. You can even see the texture of skin on the back of Garrett’s hand…